Job Discussion Forums

[BradS]

Hey, I'm working on a major project called http://www.SmokeFreeJapan.com and am in great need of smoke free restaurants, cafes and clubs in Japan. All help would be greatly appreciated.

Any recomendations?

[Celeste]

A few coffee shops in Fukuoka (Starbucks comes to mind right off the bat) but I have never eaten in a smoke free restaurant nor been to a smoke free night club in Japan.

[Revenant]

Some Mc Donalds are smoke free or smoke free between certain hours of the day/night.

[markle]

Just a a message of support. I can't think of any places off hand at the moment but I did notice a couple restaurants at the JR Nagoya Restaurant Floor that were advertised as "No Smoking" so I'll check it out when I can.

[Glenski]

Starbucks coffee shops are smoke-free.

[freddie's friend daniel]

I'm not 100% sure, you'd need to check it out, but I read somewhere that the Muji restaurants and cafes are smoke-free.

BTW, it says on your website that non-smoking places in Japan are "a dime a dozen". I would argue the opposite. It's been my experience that non-smoking eateries or those with at least a non-smoking section worth the name are not easy to find at all. The "family restaurant" chains usually have a non-smoking section (the Saizeria on Route 176 near the Handai Toyonaka campus has a decent division of smoking and non-smoking for example ) but in smaller restaurants you often have to take a chance on someone lighting up beside you. I do agree, however, that these places rely on word-of-mouth as advertising for their non-smoking policy. It still doesn't seem to be considered a major selling point in Japan.

[JimDunlop2]

Smoke-free restaurants, huh? Must be a very short list. I doubt you'd have success finding ANY in my area.... Aside from Starbacks that is..... (and that ain't a restaurant)

Good luck, though. Seriously.

[BradS]

Wow, thanks guys. I honestly didn't expect that many replies so quickly! I'm not really going to list all those family restaurants as their smoking sections are almost always right next to the "non smoking". Even if they have one of those fish tanks. My policy is that the smoking areas must be completely seperate.

I just got back from a trip to Okinawa and found several 100% non smoking places there without even looking! Maybe one day Tokyo will be like that.

[Sage]

My favorite is when you have to go through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section or to the bathrooms. Great design people ~_~;;

They should ban smoking in all public restaurants (not bars). It'll never happen but they should. There are, however, a few enlightened restaurants around that don't allow smoking but they are rare at best. Good luck finding them. They are a lung-full joy indeed.

Hah, another reason Japan can be so stupid sometimes: I just found out that in Japan, the government *JUST* forced tobacco makers to put warnings on packs of cigs letting people know that they, as my students said, "...might be bad for your health." Sometimes I wonder about this country...

--------
~Sage
Bitter and loving it since 1975.

[wintersweet]

I've read a few times that the best sushi places are smoke-free--real connouisseurs realize that the smoke smell interferes with the delicate flavors. But I never had the budget to try out that theory!

Kaiseki in a ryokan is smoke-free by nature, since it's just your party in a room.

Good luck with the site. I hope it's still going when I get the chance to return to Japan. I just spent a weekend in smoke-filled Las Vegas--oy, the headache!

[Brooks]

for 2 coffee places, Tully`s has a room for smokers (with the rest of the place smoke-free),
and Excelsior has smoking floors, at shops that are at least two floors.

[lajzar]

Piece of web design advice: Don't force the font size. That font size is what I expect on some angsty teen goth's blog, not a serious site that wants to be read by the general public. I'd honestly love to read the site properly, but I'm not into eye strain.

[TokyoLiz]

Some of the newer Moss Burgers have smoking rooms, and the rest of the restaurant is smoke-free.

Just about every Oedo Sushi in Chiba area seems to be smoke free.

[freddie's friend daniel]

Back again.

Don't go discounting all family restaurants. As I said, our local Saizeriya has separate smoking/ non-smoking sections and not a fish-tank in sight. The sections are divided by the waiting area and cashier, with at least 3 metres between smoking and non-smoking tables.

And good news for Wintersweet...next time you are here, go to Kurazushi, the kaitensushi chain. 100yen a plate and totally non-smoking, I noticed yesterday. The sushi isn't top-class of course but it's edible

[JimDunlop2]